Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Founder & General Partner of Future Africa, speaks to COVID-19 Africa Watch about how the pandemic has changed the startup investment environment and what the opportunities might be for retail investors.

Key Takeaways

The following are a few of the main takeaways from COVID-19 Africa Watch’s conversation with Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Founder & General Partner, Future Africa:

• The uncertainty introduced by the COVID-19 has led a number of institutional investors to pull back from investments in African startups. The premise of Future Africa is that retail investors may be willing to fill that gap.
• Retail investors are increasingly interested in startups, in part because of the volatility and uncertainty of traditional savings vehicles at the current time.
• The FinTech sector is moving into a second generation of companies focused on issues beyond payments to include savings and investment.
• COVID-19 has revealed the profound impacts of the quality of governance from one country to another, and there may be opportunities for the private sector to help advance better governance models on the continent, potentially through special economic zones.

The interview was conducted by the Sofia Bonaya of the Central Bank of Kenya, who is also an IFC-Milken Institute Capital Market Scholar.